After the Nationals hired Dusty Baker to be their new manager through a complicated process that has all of us still scratching our heads, we at CSN decided to run a full 30-minute special to break it all down. We had Mark Zuckerman, Joe Orsulak, Sebastian Salazar and myself all give our takes on the situation in a special edition of Geico SportsNet Central.

Here are some of the highlights from the episode which covered a lot of topics on the matter:

Did the Nats screw up the managerial search process?

What type of manager is Dusty Baker?

How does Baker fit with the Nationals as they are currently assembled?

What will the relationship between Baker and Bryce Harper be like?

Hughes tries to talk Nats fans who are furious over Baker hire off the ledge

CSN Bay Area columnist Ray Ratto on why some criticism of Baker is unfair

The Junkies from 106.7 The Fan examine what went wrong with the Bud Black situation

Nats have gone through 5 managers in 11 seasons (Baker is #6 in season 12).
Average tenure per manager 2.2 years, with a maximum tenure of 2.5 years.
Expected tenure of a post-retirement-age manager hired when he was post-retirement
is unlikely to deviate far from the Nationals’ mean, average or median.

natsfan1a - Nov 4, 2015 at 2:35 PM

Hmmm, this is a very interesting tweet. (Yeah, yeah, I know. Nothing definitive…yada yada yada. Would be pretty cool, though. imho.

===

William Ladson ‏@washingnats 26 minutes ago

Mike Maddux is likely to be named pitching coach of the Nationals. http://MLB.com will have more.

natsfan1a - Nov 4, 2015 at 2:35 PM

Also, )

That is all.

jd - Nov 4, 2015 at 4:45 PM

That would be a great hire.

Doc - Nov 4, 2015 at 4:46 PM

Sounds good!

Brother Gregg comes as a consultant. He could give TRor some hints on imitating a prominent HOF pitcher.

First order of biz for any pitching coach is to get the pen in order. Helping Blake Treinan with consistency is at the top of my list.

Doc - Nov 4, 2015 at 4:46 PM

Sounds good!

Brother Gregg comes as a consultant. He could give TRor some hints on imitating a prominent HOF pitcher.

First order of biz for any pitching coach is to get the pen in order. Helping Blake Treinan with consistency is at the top of my list.

Not to change the topic but the 0’s just won the MASN lawsuit. That’s going to create a mess.

ArVAFan - Nov 4, 2015 at 4:31 PM

Yes, the O’s motion was granted. So the arbitration award was vacated. They definitely won the battle.

But winning the war? Not so much.

The judge laid out a couple of alternatives to re-do the arbitration process that would pass his scrutiny. When a judge gives you that type of “hint”, it’s usually wise to take it.

Appealable, of course. And the Nats/MLB may indeed do that. But even if they lose the appeal, that doesn’t mean that the O’s are off the hook for the dollars, just that the arb process starts over.

And re-doing the arb process now, with the price changes since 2012–not likely to be a win for the O’s at the end of the process (which should wrap up about the time to start the next five-year clock. Shades of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce). But at least there’s an indication of how to do the process and pass judicial muster, at least with that judge.

virginiascopist - Nov 4, 2015 at 4:43 PM

What a great analogy to Jarndyce v. Jarndyce! I wonder what will happen first, a final resolution to this dispute or a parade down Constitution Avenue for the Word Series champion Washington Nationals.

letswin3 - Nov 4, 2015 at 5:01 PM

If non-player money issues (see Buddy Black contract failure) are close to the Lerner’s heart and wallet, look for an appeal of the decision. The Lerner’s didn’t become wealthy enough to buy a MLB team by failing to be tenacious and aggressive.

This whole thing wound up in court in the first place because the parties chose to go to court, thus pissing off the Commissioner’s office.

ArVAFan - Nov 4, 2015 at 6:33 PM

Reply to Virginia:

Parade. Definitely parade.

Because I think the heirs of Peter Angelos will be litigating this issue, or the next re-set, or the one after that, long after I’m gone. Remember, there’s no termination date in that contract! So, even if the Nats take as long as the Cubs to hold a parade, law and lawyers will take longer.

voteforno6 - Nov 4, 2015 at 8:06 PM

I’m not a lawyer, so definitely not a legal expert. However, if the Orioles kept fighting every contract reset, then it seems to me that MLB would have cause to cancel it, as the Orioles would be demonstrably acting in bad faith. Sure, the Orioles would fight any attempt to do so, but I have to wonder if MLB’s antitrust exemption would give it leeway in this case.

ArVAFan - Nov 4, 2015 at 9:27 PM

Playing futurist here:

Well, the contract may last forever, but TV won’t. A century ago, people had to go to ball games to see them. Then there was radio, then TV. Who knows what disruptive technology will be next (GoPro’s on the players’ hats? Google glass broadcasts? People send their own drone/avatar/rolling camera to sit in their seats? Flocks of personal drones over the stadiums?). But there will be a next technology that will end up disrupting the revenue stream, and make the contract unenforceable or irrelevant.

But there will still be baseball. Even if it’s played by men and women wearing strength-enhancing suits, throwing 120 MPH fastballs, which are hit 600′ using super-strong reinforced bats by people who wear special video-game type glasses to see the ball. And when they don’t hit the ball, an automatic system calls the balls and strikes. But there will still be umpires–someone has to invoke the infield fly rule, which I am speculating will remain unchanged.